Federal land managers pledged to pursue efforts to resolve a conflict with a southern Nevada rancher who has refused to pay grazing fees for 20 years, according to CNN.
Officials ended a stand-off with hundreds of armed protesters in the Nevada desert on Saturday, calling off the government's roundup of cattle it said were illegally grazing on federal land and giving about 300 animals back to the rancher who owned them, CNN reported.
The dispute less than 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas between rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had simmered for days, according to CNN.
Rancher Cliven Bundy had stopped paying fees for grazing his cattle on the government land and officials said he had ignored court orders, CNN reported.
Anti-government groups, right-wing politicians and gun-rights activists camped around Bundy's ranch to support him in a standoff that tapped into long-simmering anger in Nevada and other Western states, where vast tracts of land are owned and governed by federal agencies, according to CNN.
The bureau had called in a team of armed rangers to Nevada to seize the 1,000 head of cattle on Saturday but backed down in the interests of safety, CNN reported.
"Based on information about conditions on the ground and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public," the bureau's director, Neil Kornze, said in a statement, according to CNN.
After consultations with the rancher's family, the bureau decided to release the cattle it had rounded up, and the crowd began to disperse, CNN reported. The protesters, who at the height of the standoff numbered about 1,000, met the news with applause.
A number of Bundy's supporters, who included militia members from California, Idaho and other states, dressed in camouflage and carried rifles and sidearms, according to CNN. During the stand-off, some chanted "open that gate" and "free the people."
